Summary
Where there are civilizations there is a need to communicate. Like
traveling and navigating Veltrona, it is an integral backbone if rather ignoble to the minds of many. Something that is only noticed the most when it is
not there or working, rather than when it is. This article pertains to generally wide-scale or heavily impacting forms of communication. Minutia methods, such as encryption, army flag signaling, and so forth are not really covered.
Word of Mouth
The most basic of infrastructure, knowledge passed by people to other people directly. With respects to its existence, it is from here all others are derived. Some very rudimentary forms of information passing exist here as well, such as secret notes, cryptic symbols, and other selective iconography. The actual transmission distance is non-existent, but can be extremely resilient against time. Magical means, especially, ensure these secret words survive. For the longer lived peoples, this can make ritualistic visits to certain locations much more important. Ancestral knowledge can be passed within the same group without fear of outsiders deciphering it.
Mail and Postal Services
The first tier of communication backbones most civilizations establish. Through written letters and trusted officials to carry them, knowledge is spread far and wide. Due to the writing and reading requirements, these same officials are often charged with reading the letters to the uneducated. They double as translators, particularly when working with many different groups who may not necessarily understand the other's writing system. There is also a fair amount of ritual involved in receiving or sending letters.
Dragons and
jiuweihu place great value in their words, for example. Receiving their letters and carrying them is, while not always an honor, a heavy burden. They will remember failures and disrespect forever, and an official's job may come to a close very quickly. Perhaps as a result, long-term officials are deemed trust worthy, and end up in other jobs like judicial work.
The actual transportation of letters is a matter of some note as well. Many go along with trade caravans for safety. However, some capable species like
wyverns and
harpies are in extraordinary demand. Their flight capability makes speed their greatest value, and so many governments try to retain them in employment. Some entire dynasties have formed around this powerful part of mail service, so great is the demand. The arrival of air ship technology has massively threatened their way of life, though. Larger, sturdier, with more room to carry, they are outperformed almost everywhere. It is only thanks to the massive costs of maintaining these air ships they haven't been dethroned entirely yet.
It is even rumored the likes of
lindwurms have employ, using their underground tunneling as a secure method of passage. Given their notorious rarity, whoever has them for such a purpose must be truly important indeed.
What must be said about security of packages, there is no small risk associated. Magical arts exist specifically to reinforce and protect precious pieces; furthermore, destroy them or the thief as needed. These packages are often quite obvious about their natures as a form of deterrent. Hence, those who wish to intercept someone's letters normally aims to destroy them outright instead. Special thieves have arisen in response to this, ones that study magic to disassemble the safety mechanisms. Much like the sword versus shield, it is an endless, ever escalating conflict.
Magical communication
A varied idea, the fantasy of the rich, the dutiful labors of
mages, and a nightmare of countless failures. To understand it is to glimpse into a bit of its history.
Wind mages utilize the air itself to carry their words far or near, silent or loud. The issues they run into is message integrity–more distance or more turbulent winds make their words turn to gibberish.
Fire mages utilize smoke and flickering light; the former of which is probably more reliable. Their problems are more their messages can be intercepted easily, and in the case of light, require direct visual relaying that's a pain to use farther away.
Veltron mages can utilize veltronquakes, or disguise their messages within the veltron directly. Their first method is too destructive to infrastructure to use safely, and the latter requires the recipient to find it.
Water mages have basically no large-scale use on land, but they're invaluable for fleet-wide communication in naval situations. Or, as the case is, contacting
shermadi for one reason or another.
In time, technology changed the concept of magic as a communication method. Each field developed its own counter solutions–wind uses special chimes that detect notes and thus meaning, fire developed refracting crystals for light-based communication, veltron special seismic-sensing apparatus that meant weaker veltronquakes could be used, and water farther reaching sonar-like abilities. These first generation solutions inspired countless deviations, and it became an entire industry unto itself. However, engineers frustrated with the limitations of singular magic forms began innovating combinations. While these applications usually worked, they weren't great for large-scale adaptation or cheap production.
It would be the experiments with wind and water that produced something extraordinary. By attuning the specialized chimes to the wave-motions of water, the chimes became able to communicate to each other. That is, a way of sending
something understandable that magic then translated into language. These 'invisible waves' could be attuned specifically to certain chimes, making conversations private. The
Aerthen Imperial Federation lost its mind when this technology emerged, and rapidly moved to incorporate it at a large scale. Such an operation kept it from being a nation-level secret, and the technology leaked out across the world just as quickly.
Whether the work of some bored goddess or deliberate subterfuge, it could be found as far away as
Atenkhet within a few decades. Thus it can be found in the realms of the rich, affluent, and nobility, though some nations have already opened up common usage. These devices do have a sensitivity to
mana storms and other mana disruptive actions. It could be said while on it's own it's a revolutionary creation, but it has yet to learn how to survive against Veltrona.
Soul Messaging
A
necromantic art, soul messaging bypasses the physical laws of existence entirely. By venturing into the realm of death, vast distances can compress down into the breadth of a hair. Sound and light do not exist as a conventional idea, it is rather the
experience itself that is transmitted. This makes soul messaging a profoundly intimate act, as it is a direct line of communication between two existences, not their bodies. Because of its highly esoteric nature, it remained an unknown secret among necromancers for many eons.
However, monks in
Nerzin uncovered the same idea through an entirely different process. Through deep introspection and pursuit of spiritual enlightenment, they learned to project their will externally of their body. This version didn't necessitate the realm of death, and so partially dying wasn't a requirement anymore. The problem their version ran into is the requirement for attunement. Two or more people needed to undergo a ritual of the spirit, in order to 'find' each other to communicate. While being limited in scope, this manner of communication can make some information travel at ridiculous speeds, and so represented an existential threat to great powers.
Wokma, in particular, who had their own version of this idea were very annoyed others stumbled onto it. Rather, theirs is the same exact underlying mechanics but they insist on regarding it as a separate, superior version. Nonetheless, the more they tried to suppress, the more the monks rebelliously spread the idea. It ended up proliferating over the world long ago, but time erased their contributions. Those who inherited their discoveries took them for their own, and hence soul messaging became a rare art across Veltrona.
Steeped in mysticism and legend more than reality, soul messaging is more known about than it is practiced. All sorts of knock offs have shown up over the ages, but few are able to realize its full potential. Those who are brave enough to try often must deal with its largest shortcoming: giving someone a direct line to speak to the soul. While it's impossible to directly affect someone through this, it is akin to having an ear to yell into. If one's attuned partner(s) decides to, it is an immense vulnerability.
Some might say the reason a few dragon relationships broke down randomly and without warning is due to unseen soul-related drama.
Comments